"This approach confused the orientation and direction of the process” and twists the original scope of the movement that brought about the change, he said. The Coptic cardinal explained that he sees the fusion of the religious and political realms as "a mistaken vision."
In a recent speech to the German parliament, the cardinal said that from the moment it became clear that the protests would be successful "we have seen figures and forces, completely absent at the beginning, appear and even dominate the scene."
"The most visible of these are the Muslim Brothers who seem to wish to confiscate the revolution."
The original objective of the movement, he told CNA, was "democracy, a civil state, equality, a state and an order based on equal rights and responsibilities for all, on the real participation of all, the exchange of government and authority. All of the components of a modern civil state."
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Twenty-two percent of voters asked for this through a complete overhaul of the constitution. They included Muslims and politicians who harshly criticized an unwillingness to bring about greater change.
The fact that more than 40 percent of the voting population turned out for the vote was also very significant. This "massive participation" - by Egyptian standards - was unprecedented and could have never happened under the previous regime, said the cardinal.
Still, those who hope for a democratic state are looking to the future with what he described as "a bit of apprehension."
The Islamist influence witnessed before the referendum vote "causes a little fear for those who don't want the process to be guided by a religious vision, pressure, and authority ... And, this is the fear for the future which is also repeated for the successive phases.
The cardinal is putting a lot of weight on these "future phases" in which he hopes a definitive change of the constitution will be carried out.
After parliamentary elections in September, a commission will be formed to address the scope of the modifications. From this step will come the guidelines for the new president.
"These are the three stages, three moments that are definitive for the future," Cardinal Naguib said.
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The elections, he concluded, will have an effect on the entire Middle East, which looks to Egypt as a model.
"If there is pressure on choices by religion that come in to dominate the other civil and political aspects, certainly we will be heading into a religious state," he said.
“For this, I've always said, ‘How will the future Middle East be? One of the two. Either democratic, civil and modern, or Islamic.’”
"We don't have an intermediate choice."